Today's find

Originally Posted by unknownk

I don't get why somebody who is just going to recycle something isn't happy getting 2-3x scrap value for an item he doesn't have to do anything with besides stick it in a box and mail it (or if local just hand it over). Collectors need to get a feel for what the scrap value of the stuff is worth and bid accordingly and scrappers need to quit thinking if something is wanted or collectable it must be worth its weight in gold.

I had a good thing going with a local recycling place where I would walk in every Friday and they would just let me go poking around looking for whatever I wanted and paid the 2-3x scrap value for it (as-is no warrenty). I got some cool things for little money and the owner got cash to go out to eat. Sure once in a while I would find something worth a few hundred bucks (after I cleaned and tested it) just like scrappers can find something that just needs a fuse or minor repair to sell (HDTV for instance), but without the knowledge and experience it is all just ewaste.

That is a very lopsided perspective there Unknownk, one sided as well. You think nobody had to work for what they got? Or study it and check it out? Just plop it in a box huh? drop it in the mail?! I knew where you were coming from when you said "how much?", in the way that you said it, I knew anything over 15 cents was going to garner a frown from you. Not that I hadn't already searched for, found, gone and collected, sorted, and studied, every piece of it, and offered to give you the part you wanted for free, certainly not that I owed it to ya(not to mention offering a portion of another item for free as well, but, seeing as how it was also going to be free, you wanted it all, not just a portion). Then the cost of a padded envelope ($1.50 or so at the post office), plus the trip there, 16 miles(another $4 in gas alone) plus postage (another couple of bucks). SO, I stopped, and thought, and said, just send me a padded stamped envelope and it'll be on it's way. BUT, that was too much for you to have to do huh? Yet you expected me to do it FOR you.



Now on to point 2.
"Collectors need to get a feel for what the scrap value of the stuff is worth and bid accordingly and scrappers need to quit thinking if something is wanted or collectable it must be worth its weight in gold"
You're saying collectors of hard to find items should always pay only scrap value for anything? And people who work in cleaning up scrap should never expect anything more than scrap price for anything they have dug out of the pile, recognizing it as something of value, cleaning it up, sorting it out, studying it in detail, and in many cases even fixing it for resale at better than scrap?
You stated you did the same thing,
" Sure once in a while I would find something worth a few hundred bucks (after I cleaned and tested it) just like scrappers can find something that just needs a fuse or minor repair to sell (HDTV for instance), but without the knowledge and experience it is all just ewaste"

SO, scrappers are only good for a fuse? but you are the whole Enchilada? " knowledge and experience"

yeah, we clean stuff up, and test things too, and are not always limited to a fuse, but you have really tested mine here

Originally Posted by Bear

Now on to point 2.
"Collectors need to get a feel for what the scrap value of the stuff is worth and bid accordingly and scrappers need to quit thinking if something is wanted or collectable it must be worth its weight in gold"
You're saying collectors of hard to find items should always pay only scrap value for anything? And people who work in cleaning up scrap should never expect anything more than scrap price for anything they have dug out of the pile, recognizing it as something of value, cleaning it up, sorting it out, studying it in detail, and in many cases even fixing it for resale at better than scrap?
You stated you did the same thing,
" Sure once in a while I would find something worth a few hundred bucks (after I cleaned and tested it) just like scrappers can find something that just needs a fuse or minor repair to sell (HDTV for instance), but without the knowledge and experience it is all just ewaste"

SO, scrappers are only good for a fuse? but you are the whole Enchilada? " knowledge and experience"

yeah, we clean stuff up, and test things too, and are not always limited to a fuse, but you have really tested mine here

I think you read way too much into what I posted. Where did I say anything about only paying scrap value for collectables? Ebay is flooded with ewaste people who fix up equipment and resell it (and I have purchased from them myself). All I said was a collector needs to get a feel for what something is worth to a scrapper as scrap value. if I want a Gateway 6 way PPro server I have to know each PPro chip is worth $17 a pop so I have a clue what the base value for that system is just for recycle. I just used the fuse example to show how some stuff can be easily repaird and sold as a working unit (didn't feel like typing how much electronics ended up in dumpsters because of the initial switch from lead to lead free solder and bad solder joints that are easy to fix). There are tons of people around me and on this forum who snag items they know they can fix ( or can research how to fix) and resale, its easy money (thats just added value taking something that is broken or needs work and fixing it, you get paid for the work and knowledge not just for scrap). I have pointed out a few times in this forum items that are worth more then ewaste to collectors when I see them just to keep them from getting scrapped and the owners can make a few more bucks (of which I don't get a dime for my efforts).